


Little Joanna

by ravenclawlegilimens



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Angst, Family, Fluff, Gen, More tags to be added, Visiting Earth, Young Joanna McCoy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-01-04 05:46:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12162711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenclawlegilimens/pseuds/ravenclawlegilimens
Summary: All Joanna wanted was her Dad. She was stuck on a random planet, meanwhile; he had all the fun.





	1. Centaurus

Joanna woke up, just like any other morning on Centaurus. For her it was waking up to seeing a room she had only been put in a week ago. Every morning she woke up to the same shock and feeling of almost dread. All she wanted was to have her dad right there. She just wanted him to be there like he had for the past 4 years. He was the one who would wake her up just a little early so they could have a little time together. Even if he had just worked the night shift he would stay with her all morning, until he had only a couple hours until he had to work again or until they went to bed.

She always preferred those day, to the ones she spent with her mother. The ones with Jocelyn seemed like they would never end, when she really wanted them to. Jocelyn always found something that Joanna did wrong or could change. Like she needed to stop tearing her dresses, that Joanna hated, and find things other than climbing trees to do. Joanna had nothing against the concept of a dress, but she hated the restriction they had her and her activities. If she wanted to stay on the ground she would, but then Jocelyn would tell her that she was getting too dirty. The only time she made her mother even slightly happy with her activity choice was when she sat down with her dollhouse. Even then she wasn't doing it right. She was supposed to make them a happy, normal family, but instead she either made it some sort of imaginary world or she replicated the things no one knew she heard.

The days with her father were fun. He did not tell her that having fun was wrong. He told her to be careful in the tree and change into play clothes when they went outside. Everything just felt better with hims. He did not make her feel like she disappointed him. When Jocelyn left she did not really understand what happened or know how she should react.  
When Leonard was accepted into Starfleet, she was just a little too excited. She thought it would be like when the sitter was busy, so he took her with him and she was told to stay in a designated area. Instead, he put her on a planet with some extended family. Joanna was less than pleased, to say the least, with the situation.

Leonard could barely tell her goodbye once the tears started coming from the child. Her effort was in getting him to take her with him, to the point that she attempted to wrap herself around his waist. Her arms were not quite long enough to succeed at this task. It was a long heartbreaking experience for the father and daughter at the time. Joanna was begging to go to Starfleet, while Leonard was just trying to keep her safe. Eventually, after a while with the two of them sitting down and Joanna crying as Leonard explained why she had to stay, Joanna was was taken by her host family.

She arrived at a nice house, not that she noticed much with her eyes still full of tears. By now they were red and puffy and she was screaming for her dad. Her throat was showing signs of the constant screaming with cracks occurring frequently. Despite their efforts, the family struggled to calm her. It was purely waiting for her to exhaust herself, which she did within an hour, then placing her in her room for the night.

Keeping her in their after she woke up in the middle of the night was rather difficult though. She kept waking up in tears. She did not want to be on a new planet alone. She wanted her Dad right around the corner if she woke up from a night terror. She wanted to crawl into bed with him like she used to, or to crawl into bed while he was working. She had her comfort item, the blanket Leonard gave her once he started working nights, but it didn't keep her in bed very long.

Her first day proved to be harder than her first night. She struggled waling up, once she stayed asleep. Her eyelids felt heavy the whole morning, from when she crept into the kitchen for breakfast to playing with the other children.

She was awoken by her cousin, Maddie, speaking softly. Joanna could not quite make out the words and only heard soft babblings. Her hands went up to her eyes in tiny fists to rub the sleep away, but went down to the blanket to hide from getting out of bed. She felt a hand on her back that began rubbing.

"Hun, I know you're tired. But, you need to get out of bed." Maddie whispered as she pulled back the blanket and put it at the foot of the bed. Joanna let out a small whimper and rolled to face the room and smiled at Maddie, who got up and left as Joanna put her feet on the cold wooden floor.

She put on the purple T-shirt and jeans that were sat out for her, and she made her bed. In the process of making her bed she did decide that she needed blankey for breakfast. She kept it wrapped around her and entered the kitchen, where she sat at the table. It had 4 chairs, but typically only 2 were ever used. She was just barely tall enough for her chin to be above the top of the table. She did however sit up on her feet and manage to gain just enough height for the table to function well for her.

She did not touch much of her breakfast, pancakes and a variety of fruit. She mainly just took little bites when she was told to do so. She was then sent off with some Centaurian children where she played and half listened to English lessons, with things she already knew. She mainly drew little pictures everywhere and wrote 'I Miss You's to Leonard.

In the afternoon she went home and repeated the breakfast with mac and cheese, instead. She ate a little more thanks to bigger bites and being told to take them more. She went about her afternoon playing doctor with her teddy bear, then was told it was time to nap and was sent to her room. She did not particularly enjoy the concept of a nap and instead decided 'nap' meant 'play quietly'. This was not the most successful attempt at quiet play she could achieve and resulted in a fall from the shelf, in an effort to get her dollhouse. Between the 4 year old and the dollhouse hitting the floor someone had to hear something.

Maddie walked in, "Josey, it's nap time." She said sternly as she examined the child, that barely reacted to the fall. She did cry over feeling as is she were in trouble. Maddie picked her up and sat her on the bed. "Jo, you know nap time is very important and that it means bed, not play." Maddie reminded her.

"You not mad?" Joanna questioned as she held her blankey closer.

"Of course not. I know it was an accident, but you do need your nap. If you aren't in bed when I check on you we can call your dad." Maddie told her.

The last bit caught Joanna's attention too much. She decided that she wanted to talk to her dad, and that if it meant breaking rules it was worth it. She acted as she were ready to sleep, then when Maddie was well past gone get out of bed. She decided to go for the dollhouse again and managed to get it down with minimal noise.

She played for about 20 minutes, when Maddie slid her door open. The look on Joaana's face was pure happiness, while Maddie's was not anger but rather disappointment. She took the girl in her arms to the living room and sat them down with a tablet where they called Leonard.

He looked as tired as you would expect for barely sleeping at all the night before.

"Daddy!" Joanna exclaimed in pure excitement, which put a huge smile on Leonard's face.

The smile quickly faded as Maddie explained the situation. Leonard was not mad at all. He remembered hating naps too and thought back to anytime he did the same thing.

"Jo, we talked about naps and how they're good for you?" Leonard began questioning and Joanna nodded a little. "We talked about getting help for things on the shelf?" Joanna nodded again. "You know we're not mad?" Joanna paused then nodded.

"Good, and because I love you, I think you should go to bed early this week and no dollhouse until after nap time everyday." Leonard stated and Joanna sunk back a little and nodded. "I love you, JoJo." He said as they said goodbye. "Love you too, Da!" Joanna exclaimed and then Maddie hung up.

"We're going to clean up your dollhouse and put it in my room so you can't have it until after nap time everyday." Maddie explained and took the girl's hand. They did it together, then made dinner and sent Joanna to bed at 6:30.

The rest of the week went smoothly, with the early bedtime. The hardest part was every morning. She never wanted anyone but Leonard every morning.


	2. Visiting Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jo is on Earth for the summer and has to go see her mom, before she has to go back to school. She wants to stay with her dad, instead of going to see her mom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will probably become a series of one-shots for Jo.

“I wanna stay here ”  
Joanna wasn’t happy that she was leaving her dad after the last month of summer with him. It wasn’t completely with him, but just being in the house or with her friends there was enough to make her happy. She was 7 and definitely using “tricks” to stay a little longer. A Joanna classic was hiding every single left shoe so they knew what right shoes to look for and she got an extra 20 minutes at least. She hid some in typical spaces for her like under the bed or on top of the bookshelf, then stranger places like the back of the refrigerator or inside washing machine, then turning it on, the latter being the most interesting this time. It was just that one, which happened to be the one that matched her right shoe. She smiled as she looked in same area that Leonard and she had searched a few times before.  
Her smile dropped a little as she heard her voice in a harsher tone than she expected, “Joanna, you hide your shoes everytime, and we go through this search everytime. We’ll just have to tell your mother that you lost the other one if you won’t tell me where you hid it.” Joanna looked at her feet, the right foot in a purple tennis shoe, her favorite to be exact, and her left foot in a solid teal sock.  
“But, I...I just wanna stay here with you. Why can’t I just stay here and go to school here and only see mom sometimes instead of only seein’ you sometimes?” She whispered quietly as she picked at the purple nail polish that was already mostly gone.  
“Jo, you have to go home. We aren’t going to argue about it. It’s easier to keep it like it is, rather than change it now. Once you get through high school we can talk about it, until then we’ll keep handling it like this. Now where is your other shoe or you go pick out a different pair and I will keep looking for the other one.”  
“It’s getting washed.” She mumbled almost inaudibly.  
“Jojo. First, you can’t just go wash your shoes without help. Second, you can’t wash one shoe and not the other…”  
“Well I did.” Jo snapped a little bit and turned around and placed her hands on her hips.  
Leonard raised an eyebrow at her, “Now, go pick out a different pair of shoes.” He said mimicking her hands on her hips.  
“But, Daddy” she groaned and stomped into the other room and plopped herself in the middle of the floor. She rocked back and finished by over-dramatically throwing herself to lay on the floor. “I don’t wanna change shoes.” She whined and looked up at the ceiling.  
“I know you don’t and I would love to wait on your other shoe, but we are already running too far behind. So, you can pick out your shoes or I can.”  
Joanna did something then that she hadn’t done for a while. Sure, she would have the occasional raised voice when she didn’t get her way or cry because she couldn’t have a second dessert or tell her mom that she was mean for making her do her chores, but she never really had a tantrum. This, on the other hand, was a tantrum. It started off as that look she got of a raised eyebrow and big eyes so that may be someone cave then went to a scream. Her face was turning pinker by the second, “I WANNA STAY HERE!” She yelled and kicked her feet against the ground.  
“Joanna Leanne McCoy, stop! Little girls that throw tantrums don’t get to do fun things when they come over. I really want to do fun things with you, so I hope you’ll be a big girl.” Leonard spoke in a firm tone and picked up a pair of white tennis shoes.  
Joanna wasn’t really affected by this though and started adding volume to her screams. “I’M NOT LEAVING!”  
“I guess I’ll call mom and tell her that she needs to come here so you can calm down and take a nap. You sure seem tired if you’re acting like this.” Joanna perked up at the mention of the nap and stopped. She hated naps, they always felt long and boring.  
“I stop, but could you still tell mama to come pick me up so we get extra time.” Leonard shook his head, as much as he might have wanted to stay there a little longer.  
“We’ll have the whole car ride though.”  
“‘s not the same, we can’t watch a movie, read a book, do puzzles, or play with the turtle house together. You just drive and I gotta watch you and be bored in back.”  
“I know hun, but you gotta go home. How are you gonna be that nurse you always talked about being without going to school?”  
“I can go here.” She mumbled, back on staying here.  
“I already said no, because your mother is going to say no.”  
“I don’t like her.”  
“Jo, stop. You’ll do what she says until I get you in a few weeks.”  
“NO!” She stood up and stomped her right foot on the floor. “I am not leaving this house!” She yelled.  
Leonard picked her up and took her to her bedroom. “It’s nap time until mom gets here or I come get you.” He told her as he took her shoe off and tucked her back into bed.  
Joanna looked up at him with the “puppy” eyes. She was trying to bring all the cute that she could to the table. Leonard shook his head and closed the door, but didn’t latch it. Joanna just looked up at the white ceiling and the way light moved around the room as the wind moved the trees outside. She did anything to avoid sleeping. She started reading all the book titles on the shelf and rereading them, just to pass the time.  
She heard a knock probably an hour or two later. “Jo, if you want to get up you can, your mom should be here in about an hour. If you want to read a book or two together we can.” Leonard whispered through the door.  
Joanna was up as soon as he knocked on the door. She grabbed her favorite book for them to read together, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. She opened the door and gave him the biggest hug she had in awhile.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr now so hmu enterprisefeels.tumblr.com


End file.
